Arsenal vs Liverpool - The perfect tonic for post-Halloween woes

Like all fixtures played this weekend, Arsenal versus Liverpool will be played under the post-Halloween shadow. Every year there’s the big build-up – how many parties are you hosting this Halloween? How many thousands of pounds are you spending on Halloween gifts? etc – and every year the slump that follows the show leaving town gets slightly harder to get over. Sure, managers have their tricks – Arsene Wenger will be managing with a pumpkin next to him this weekend, whilst Brendan Rodgers will be wearing one of those outfits Tesco had removed from their website to prove that he’s ‘not PC’ – but there’s always a lull post-Halloween.

We can only hope this game can make up for it. There’s at least a chance of it. For once both Arsenal and Liverpool are playing for more than its own sake, which must make a nice change. Both are nominally in the title race, even if the other teams who are going to be only really bothered to set off a couple of weeks ago. They’ve both played well enough to deserve to be first and (joint) second in the league and they have both been exciting to watch at times. Good for them.

If Wenger and Rodgers set their teams up to attack, as their recent team selections suggest they will, then there’s every reason to believe that this match will be the opposite of terrible, even though it is coming so closely after Halloween. We all remember Liverpool 4-4 Arsenal a few years ago, don’t we? Well, it won’t be that, obviously, but it could be alright. Again, that would be particularly impressive post-Halloween, which is, again, a difficult time for us all.

However, some bad news. Notwithstanding the strong chance that this game ends in a draw, one team has to lose this game. The effect of that is significant. Whoever loses instantly drops off the pace at the top of the league – with Chelsea ready to overtake – and, what’s more, probably inflicts some serious enough self-loathing on themselves afterwards to be in danger of falling further behind in the following weeks. Post-Halloween is, of course, a particularly dangerous time for those low on confidence.

So it’s crucial not to lose. Duh. For Arsenal, achieving this will come down to whether their slick passing game is up to scratch and whether, without Matthieu Flamini, their defence can do a good enough job of not looking like clowns. For Liverpool, it will come down to whether Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suarez – who loves Halloween by the way – can continue their goalscoring run together of ten goals in five games, which some are calling ‘quite good’.

One person who won’t decide this game is Steven Gerrard. He’s playing at being a holding midfielder these days and looking better at it than he did at first, but these days he neither dictates games nor makes the crucial, momentary contributions that he used to. You might say this is an unnecessary dig at Gerrard, but the counter is this: he gets enough unnecessary praise that any unnecessary criticism only serves to balance it out.

With that done, only a prediction remains. It’ll be a score draw, because both of these teams have good attacks but shaky defences, especially with Flamini out for Arsenal. It’ll be good. And it’ll be what we all need in the difficult period post-Halloween.